Jack Letts appeals for repatriations from Iraq in 'out of the blue' phone call to parents

Jack Letts appeals for repatriations from Iraq in 'out of the blue' phone call to parents Submitted by Simon Hooper on Mon, 08/03/2026 - 17:48 British-born Canadian man, who spoke to his parents for the first time in almost a decade, is among thousands of detainees transferred from Syria to Iraq earlier this year Jack Letts, pictured during an interview filmed in a Syrian prison for CTV News's W5 programme in 2024 (Screengrab) Off The parents of Jack Letts, a British-born Canadian man who travelled to Islamic State-controlled territory in Syria as a teenager in 2014, have described their shock, relief and frustration after being phoned “out of the blue” by their son from an Iraqi detention centre nine years after they were last able to speak to him. Sally Lane, Letts's mother, told Middle East Eye she hoped the unexpected phone call was a sign of mounting pressure by Baghdad to force the repatriation of foreign nationals held over alleged links to the Islamic State group (IS) for almost a decade in Syria until their transfer into Iraqi custody earlier this year. "It came completely out of the blue.